It's hard for me to believe any Cinephile would use Netflix at all, the bitrates on their streams are painfully low and it's absolutely noticeable even on medium sized screens. And that's not even mentioning the audio quality.
I don't think that "cinephile" strongly implies anything about the technical reproduction quality of the media. To me, it connotes someone who is very passionate about the history of film, niche genres of film, and/or film criticism or theory.
A Cinephile is someone who is into movies and discussing the themes, theories, plots, philosophy of movies. They are not really concerned with bitrates as long as its watchable.
… and bitrates are more of an issue for things like HD action movies. That old French movie from the 70s which hasn't been professionally retouched is probably going to be fine.
I'm a cinephile and work in post-production. When I'm working on a feature, I'm working with an uncompressed 2k or 4k video file. But when I want to watch a movie or show at the spur of the moment, I'm fine with Netflix. I'm typically more interested in the story although on occasion I will try to find a blu-ray or see it theatrically if it is something visually arresting.
Or they can pay cinephile prices like $80+ for movies. I remember the time of paying $100 for movies on Betamax and it was amazing. But yes it's true NF selection is getting worse for DVD mail order if you are a small audience, like this or foreign films.
